"If those in Washington had any sense at all, they would be begging you to stay here in the U.S.," Bloomberg, mayor of New York City, told the giddy crowd, celebrating in Stanford Stadium's bright morning sun.

"But instead," he warned, "our immigration laws may force some of you to leave in the months and years ahead."

One-third of Sunday's graduates are student visa holders who now must find work at an employer willing to support their continued residence here. A total of 82 countries are represented by master's and Ph.D. degree holders. Stanford undergraduates come from 43 countries other than the United States.

Bloomberg, Stanford President John Hennessy and tech leaders aspire to a country in which graduates would get a green card stapled to their diploma -- so they can go out into the world to invent jobs.

"We invite foreign students to study here, we subsidize the universities they attend with research funding and other aid, and then after those students have mastered the material, we tell them to go somewhere else and work for one of our competitors," said Bloomberg.

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"It's the most backward economic policy you could possibly come up with," he said. "I call it national suicide -- because we are destroying our future by turning our back on our history, and we've got to stop it."

Brains and capital

Hennessy recounted his own Irish roots, with ancestors who came to America in the early 1800s as laborers. The computer scientist, who founded MIPS Computer Systems (now called MIPS Technologies, Inc.), has been nicknamed "the godfather of Silicon Valley." The two men believe brains, connected to capital, can spawn more new companies, faster.

"Getting a visa is far too difficult and expensive," said Kimberly Ho, of Malaysia, whose application will be supported by her new employer, Goldman Sachs. "If you want to work for a startup, with five people, (that kind of firm) won't be able to afford it. That's ridiculous."

Pranav Dandekar, a Ph.D. management science and engineering student, said a more generous immigration policy "makes total sense. You want people who are productive. You want people who are educated," said the 33-year-old from India, who will do postdoctoral research about Internet-based markets and social networks. "The education has been subsidized by American taxpayers and could be put to use."

Stanford students take their seats inside the football stadium for the school's 122nd commencement ceremony Sunday morning June 16, 2013 in Palo Alto, Calif. (Karl Mondon/Bay Area News Group)

On Friday, while visiting the Bay Area, Bloomberg met with leaders in Silicon Valley. He has been trying to boost New York City's technology sector, which he said has grown 30 percent since 2005 and ranks No. 1 for job growth in mobile app companies.

His selection as commencement speaker symbolized fence-mending between the campus and the mayor, after a dispute over the terms of Stanford's application to build a New York City-based innovative tech campus.

Stanford recoiled at meeting new terms laid down by Bloomberg after its proposal had already been submitted, worried about a potentially expensive loss of flexibility. It abruptly dropped out of the intense competition and the NYC-based campus was instead given to its main rival in the contest, Cornell University.

"We had hoped that Stanford itself might help lead our tech boom in New York City," he said. "That didn't work out -- no hard feelings -- but I think in the end it will."

Bloomberg calculated that "more and more Stanford graduates will find themselves moving to 'Silicon Alley',﻿" the nickname given to the high tech and new media companies of Manhattan.

"Not only because we're the hottest new tech scene in the country but also because there's more to do on a Friday night than go to the Pizza Hut in Sunnyvale -- and you may even be able to find a date with a girl whose name is not Siri."

The ceremony opened with the now-traditional "Wacky Walk," when graduates pour onto the field in creative costumes. Engineers donned a big spacecraft; chemists wore the Periodic Table, spelling out "Stanford," in elements. Texans wore their state flag, and little else.

One graduate dressed up as a "Big Gulp," a comic homage that poked fun at Bloomberg's failed attempt to ban super-sized sodas.

The celebration closed when the costumed Stanford Marching Band stormed the stage, joined by dancers and the mascot Tree.

Gone was the pomp in the circumstance of all those young people leaving college.